The present invention relates in general to containers, and more particularly to plural use medicinal containers.
Many patients who are treated in physicians' offices and in hospitals are given prescriptions for several drugs. Often, these prescriptions include medications for infections, or pain, cardiac drugs, and sometimes diuretics, and the like.
There are many devices known for carrying such medicines, and the so-called "pillbox" is very common. However, these devices suffer many drawbacks. For example, to be carried in the known devices of the "pillbox" type, the drugs should be in pellet form, and these pellets often become intermingled leaving the user to guess as to the identity of a particular pellet. Intermixing of drugs can obviously have very adverse effects. Furthermore, these devices have no means for containing instructions and the like for the individual drugs.
There are also several single use devices known. These devices include assemblies of several containers connected together by break joints which are broken apart to separate containers from the unit. Once separated, the containers cannot be rejoined, and thus, once the contents thereof are used, a container is discarded. The containers are, therefore, amenable to only a single use. Such single use, non-reusable containers are expensive and the break joints are often difficult to operate.
Often, patients will simply carry a plurality of pharmaceutical bottles in a bag. Such a method of transporting medicine is not desirable, as the individual bottles may easily become lost, broken or misplaced, and such bags are often bulky.